Are you a jellyfish parent?

Sometimes I feel like I am a jellyfish, being pushed and pulled by the force of my child's imperative mood. Am I too lieneant or too strict? Am I causing emotional or psychological harm by how stern my voice is when giving direction or discipline? I wonder how much I can sway back and forth until I finally rip and detach completely.

I feel like I am in a deep ocean everyday and I'm holding on for dear life bobbing up and down, up and down on a buoy that's far from land. I can see there is a stationary island in the distance but I haven't been there in quite some time. The thought of emotional stability at the island seems much farther away than it appears to be. Every time I take a deep breath and set my mind to making it from the buoy to the island, I get overtaken by the vigorous waves crashing over me. The ups and downs of my household is like the ocean bringing powerful waves of my child's consistent declaration of her desires and demands. I am just a jellyfish in this ocean and my efforts to stand my ground, pun intended, are just tentacles mobile in the waves.